Web Services

Overview
Marlon Pierce
Indiana University
mpierce@cs.indiana.edu
 A Note on XML
 Bryan Carpenter put together a
comprehensive set of slides on XML.
• http://www.grid2004.org/spring2004/
 Web Services make extensive use of
XML, so Bryan’s slides provide an
excellent review.
 What Are Web Services?
 Web services framework is an XML-based distributed services
system.
• SOAP, WSDL, UDDI
• WS-Interoperability
• Intended to support machine-to-machine interactions over the
network using messages.
 Basic ideas is to build a platform and programming language-
independent distributed invocation system out of existing Web
standards.
• Most standards defined by W3C, Oasis (IP considerations)
• Interoperability really works, as long as you can map XML
message to a programming language type, structure, class, etc.
 We regularly use Java-C++ and Java-Perl communication
 Very loosely defined, when compared to CORBA, etc.
 Inherit both good and bad of the web
• Scalable, simple, distributed
• But no centralized management, not high performance, must be
tolerant of failures.
 Web Services Compared to MPI
 WSDL is a API definition language
• Your programs have been using the MPI API
• Your codes on the Grid Farm machines have been using the
LAM-MPI implementation of MPI.
 Prof. Andrew Lumsdaine, Indiana U and the Open Systems Lab
 SOAP is an envelope for transferring messages.
• You can build messaging systems (“MOMs”) with SOAP.
 For the most part, WS and MPI apply to very
different domains.
• Web Services are loosely coupled
 Use (typically) HTTP to carry messages.
• No shared memory
• Millisecond (or longer) message communication speeds
instead of microsecond.
 Basic Architectures:
Servlets/CGI and Web Services
Browser
Browser GUI
Client

HTTP GET/POST Web WSDL

Server
SOAP
WSDL
Web

WSDL
WSDL
Server Web
Server
SOAP
JDBC
JDBC
DB DB
or MPI or MPI
Appl. Appl.
 Explanation of Previous Slide
 The diagram on the left represents a
standard web application.
• Browsers converse with web servers using HTTP
GET/POST methods.
• Servlets or CGI scripts process the parameters
and take action, like connect to a DB.
• Examples: Google, Amazon
 On the right, we have a Web services
system.
• Interactions may be either through the browser
or through a desktop client (Java Swing, Python,
Windows, etc.)
• Examples: Google, Amazon
 Some Terminology
 The diagram on the left is called a client/server
system.
 The diagram on the right is called a multi-tiered
architecture.
 SOAP: Simple Object Access Protocol
• No longer an abbreviation in SOAP 1.2
• XML Message format between client and service.
 WSDL: Web Service Description Language.
• Describes how the service is to be used
• Compare (for example) to Java Interface.
• Guideline for constructing SOAP messages.
• WSDL is an XML language for writing Application
Programmer Interfaces (APIs).
 Amazon and Google Experiment
with Web Services
 Both Google and Amazon have conducted
open experiments with Web services.
 Why? To allow partners to develop custom
user interfaces and applications that work
Google and Amazon data and services.
 You can download their APIs and try them.
• http://www.google.com/apis/
• http://www.amazon.com/webservices
 More Examples of Web Services
 Geographical Information Systems are
perfect candidates for WS
• The Open Geospatial Consortium defines
several relevant standards
 Geographic Markup Language (GML) exchanges info.
 Web Feature Service works with abstract GML feature
data.
 Web Map Service creates maps (images)
 XMethods
• Lots and lots of contributed examples, live
demos
• Try them
 http://www.xmethods.com/
 Web Service Architectures
 The following examples illustrate how Web
services interact with clients.
 For us, a client is typically a JSP, servlet,
or portlet that a user accesses through
browser.
 You can also build other clients
• Web service interoperability means that clients
and services can be in different programming
languages (C/C++, python, java, etc).
 Before Going On…
 In the next several slides we’ll go into the
details of WSDL and SOAP.
 But in practice, you don’t need to work
directly with either.
• Most tools that I’m familiar with generate the
WSDL for you from your class.
• SOAP messages are constructed by classes.
• Generated client stubs will even hide SOAP classes
behind a local “façade” that looks like a local class
but actually constructs SOAP calls to the remote
server.
 Developing Web
Services
Using Apache Axis to develop
Java implementations of Web
services.
 Web Service Development
Tools
 Web service toolkits exist for various
programming languages:
• C++, Python, Perl, various Microsoft
.NET kits.
 We’ll concentrate on building Java
Web services with Apache Axis.
 Language and implementation
interoperability is addressed through
WS-I.
• http://www.ws-i.org/
 Apache Axis Overview
 Apache Axis is a toolkit for converting Java
applications into Web services.
 Axis service deployment tools allow you to
publish your service in a particular
application server (Tomcat).
 Axis client tools allow you to convert
WSDL into client stubs.
 Axis runtime tools accept incoming SOAP
requests and redirect them to the
appropriate service.
 Developing and Deploying a
Service
 Download and install Tomcat and Axis.
 Write a Java implementation
• Services are just Java programs
• Compile it into Tomcat’s classpath.
 Write a deployment descriptor (WSDD) for your
service.
• Will be used by Axis runtime to direct SOAP calls.
 Use Axis’s AdminClient tool to install your WSDD
file.
• The tells the axis servlet to load your class and direct
SOAP requests to it.
 That’s it.
• Axis will automatically generate the WSDL for your
service.
 Sample WSDD
<deployment name="Submitjob"
xmlns="http://xml.apache.org/axis/wsdd/"
xmlns:java="http://xml.apache.org/axis/wsdd/providers/java">
<service name="Submitjob" provider="java:RPC">
<parameter name="scope" value="request"/>
<parameter name="className"
value="WebFlowSoap.SJwsImp"/>
<parameter name="allowedMethods"
value="execLocalCommand"/>
</service>
</deployment>
 Explanation
 Use Axis’s command-line AdminClient
tool to deploy this to the server.
 Axis will create a service called
• http://your.server/services/SubmitJob
 WSDL for service is available from
• http://your.server/services/SubmitJob?
wsdl
 A list of all services is available from
• http://your.server/services
 Check your Tomcat Server
for a list of deployed
Services:
http://localhost:8080/axis/services
 WSDL generated by
inspecting the Java
implementation. Can be
download from the
server.
(XML was shown in
earlier slides)
 Building a Client with Axis
 Obtain the WSDL file.
 Generate client stubs
• Stubs look like local objects but really
convert method invocations into SOAP
calls.
 Write a client application with the
stubs
• Can be a Java GUI, a JSP page, etc.
 Compile everything and run.
 Sample Java Client Code
/**Create SubmitJob client object and point to the
service you want to use */
SubmiJob sjws = new
SubmitJobServiceLocator().getSubmitjob(new

URL(http://your.server/services/SubmitJob));
/** Invoke the method as if local. */
String[] messages =
sjws.execLocalCommand(command);
 Two Notes On Client Stubs
 Axis stubs convert method calls into
SOAP requests but WSDL does not
require the use of SOAP.
• Web Service Invocation Framework (WSIF)
from IBM allows flexibility of protocols. (Alek
Slominski, IU)
 Client stubs introduce versioning
problems.
• We are developing dynamic (stubless) clients
that construct SOAP messages by inspecting
WSDL at runtime.
 Some Web Service URLs
 Apache Axis (Java and C++)
• http://xml.apache.org/axis/
 NaradaBrokering
• Java support for Reliability, Eventing, etc.
 WS/XSUL from Indiana University Extreme Labs
• http://www.extreme.indiana.edu/xgws/xsul/index.html
 gSOAP: C++ SOAP toolkit
• http://www.cs.fsu.edu/~engelen/soap.html
 Python Web Services:
• http://pywebsvcs.sourceforge.net/
 Perl:
• http://www.soaplite.com/